Federal Manager's Daily Report

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OPM has instructed agencies on their obligation to report on disciplinary actions they took against their employees in the last fiscal year, the latest in a series of memos on complying with the parts of the Trump administration’s three executive orders on the federal workforce that were unaffected by a court ruling blocking other provisions.

Under the order, agencies are to report information on the number of adverse personnel actions taken against their employees, broken down by type of action, probationary vs. tenured status, whether the agency provided a performance improvement period, how long the agency took to make a final decision in misconduct cases after receiving the employee’s response to the notice of proposed discipline, and the number and key terms of settlement agreements and the outcome of litigation involving adverse actions.

The data will “further facilitate a federal supervisor’s ability to promote civil servant accountability while simultaneously recognizing each employee’s procedural rights and protections,” a memo said.

OPM reminded agencies that the first year for which data are to be reported, fiscal 2018, ended September 30, and set a deadline of January 9 for the submissions. One consolidated report is required from each department or agency head using a fillable form attached to the memo, OPM said, adding that agencies must comply with laws on privacy and data security. OPM has said it will later publish government-wide figures, at a level that protects privacy of individuals.

“Some information may need to be gathered manually because of the type of data required. The data requirement includes competitive service and excepted service employees, as well as members of the Senior Executive Service and administrative law judges, as applicable,” it added.